Suppose you approached all the leading American professional golfers, and asked “What’s the one tournament that means the most to you? If you could win any one big tournament, which one would you like most to win?”
My impression is, almost all of the top Americans would say “The Masters. If I could win just one major, that’s the one I’d pick. I really want that green jacket.”
But in almost any country EXCEPT the United States, if you asked the top pro golfers the same question, I’d wager almost all of them would say “the Open,” meaning the British Open. To almost every golfer and golf fan outside the U.S., THAT’S the most prestigious tournament imaginable, and that’s the one that the pros in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia would most like to win.
So… why is it that foreign players always seem to do so well at the Masters, while American players seem to dominate the British Open?
The thing about the British open is that the courses its played on have a heavy luck factor. You can make perfect shots at these courses and get screwed over because the ball takes a bad bounce. If you go into a sand trap, the ball position can make the difference between a birdie and a bogey, because the walls of the trap are so steep.
The players were complaining on the weekend of one fairway that was simply impossible to stay on. No matter where you landed, the ball would roll to one side or the other and wind up in the tall grass.
Courses like that lower the advantage of the best players, and also test your composure. You can make great shots all day and wind up with a lousy score because of bad bounces. Players who can emotionally recover from that do better.
In contrast, most American courses are more ‘honest’. They may be really hard, but if you can put your ball in the right spot, you’re guaranteed that it will stay there. That sort of thing.
If you’ve ever walked the course on the Augusta National (I have, lots), you’d be astonished by how different the course is from what you see on the British Open. At Augusta, the rough is cut shorter than the fairway on most golf courses, the fairway is cut shorter than the green on most golf courses. There are some trees and water on Augusta, but it is difficult to lose a ball, hit into water on a good shot, or hit in a bunker or rough that you don’t have a good shot out of.
But at the Masters, you probably are playing against a better class of competitors.
At the Masters, foreign players APPEAR to have dominated. Foreign players have won the Masters 12 of the last 24 years.
As for the British Open, Americans have won 12 times in the past 24 years.
So… it MAY simply be that we have a level playing field. Perhaps all this proves is that there are loads of great golfers all over the world, and that the top U.S. players and the top players from the rest of the world are now very evenly matched, and that we can now EXPECT both the foreign golfers and the U.S. golfers to win about half the majors.
Still… it would APPEAR that the typical British Open course should offer an advantage to European players, who are more used to the rougher conditions. In reality, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I mean, I can easily see where a European player (one who was used to rugged courses) would look at Augusta National and think, “This is a piece of cake!” It sort of makes sense that Europeans would do well at Augusta. It’s less obvious why Americans (who’ve been spoiled by lush, perfectly manicured courses) would fare well in Britain.
Am currently reading Feinstein’s A Good Walk Spoiled. He followed several golfers thru the 94 season. I recently finished a chapter on the Masters (won by Olazabal - the year after Langer).
Feinstein goes on about the tradition of the Masters making it something special. Unlike the other majors, the Masters is always played at the same course, so each hole has 60+ years of history. The course is pretty special - beautiful, played at its flowering peak. All the stuff about the green jackets that never leave the clubhouse (except the current champ), the ceremonial dinners, the restricted advertising on telecasts, etc.
I think the Masters has a pretty huge rep throughout the world. It is in invitation only event, tho, not an Open. So the British might be more accessible to international golfers.